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Monday, September 18, 2017

Mountain Climbing!!

Last weekend we went to Staunton State Park to go mountain climbing, yes...I said mountain climbing, in a track chair. Now if you read my posts, you'll remember this is the same state park we went to when we first moved to Colorado and it's only a mountain climbing park. On our first expedition, it was a big fail and I was a little disappointed. After my mom did a little research, she found out that this is the same park that has two track chairs for people with disabilities to use to experience mountain climbing. This is the only state park that has them in Colorado but you have to schedule it way in advance. When I first saw the track chair, it reminded me of a tank chair. I did have a little experience with driving the track chair before when we went the abilities exbo in Houston and I tried one out. The problem was that the joystick on the left side was too far away from me and the one on the right side was closer but I had to drive with my right hand which is my non dominant hand. The cool thing is they have a joystick on both sides of the chair! So I tried both sides to see which side was better. When I drove with my left hand, my elbow kept locking up and it was hard to bend my arm to stop and let go. The lady who was guiding us on the 5 mile hike toward the pond told me what each toggle does. Every once in awhile, she would tell me to go left or right a little bit to make sure I don't go off of the trail. My dad couldn't believe that I was driving so well with my right hand. I let go of the joystick a few times but once I got a good strong grip onto it I drove it pretty well. Along the side of the trail there were numbers which indicated there was something to see. The lady said that the leaves turn red and yellow at around October. Too bad we won't be there to see it because we are going to Disney World. Caleryn is so going to explode because there is going to be princesses everywhere! Then by the time we get back, it will probably be snowing. Anyway, Caleryn and my mom was slipping on rocks walking down a slope because they had the wrong kind of shoes on. Caleryn's stomach was hurting a little bit too so, not too long after that my mom started heading back to the car with Caleryn around half way to the pond. The trail was smooth for the most part. There are three different trails and we tried the easiest one on our first outing. There were lots of tree roots sticking out of the ground. When we got to the pond, I parked the chair on the fishing dock and sat out there for a while. We didn't fish because my dad didn't bring the poles but apparently it's a great stop to fish because we saw lots of people catching. Ten minutes later we headed back. I liked riding in a track chair. I thought it was fun. Kinda wish I could've gone faster but I get it, we had to have a guide and she probably wouldn't let me. All in all I had a great time driving my version of a monster truck.